Wasti Atmodjo and Alit Kartarahardja, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Buleleng | Wed, 03/24/2010 1:19 PM
Troubles continued to plague senior high school national examinations in Bali on its second day Tuesday, forcing the Bali administration to set up a special team.
I Nyoman Selem Darmawan, coordinator for vocation schools, complained that the SMKN 5 vocational school in Denpasar did not receive 16 models of test documents for English studies.
Head of Bali Education office I Wayan Suasta said many schools had received damaged test materials. Other schools received swapped materials, which caused panic among teachers and students.
"I have sent complaint letters to the printing company Perum Percetakan Negara, the Bali governor, chairman of the National Education Standard Body *BNSP* and the national education minister."
Suasta also criticized the distribution of test materials.
"I hope the company improves its distribution system for the coming national examination for junior high school students."
The BNSP responded that schools were allowed to copy the test materials using the school's letter signs and headmasters' signatures.
Wayan Bhakta, rector of Udayana University in Denpasar, said Bali already had a monitoring team to check the implementation of national exams across the island.
"We have tried to solve technical problems such as shortages of test materials or damages of the materials. We have pledged to support our students who are now struggling to pass the exams," said Bhakta, chairman of the monitoring team.
Around 25,593 students of high schools, 31 students of school for the disabled and 15,442 vocational school students are taking part in the five-day national exams.
For this year's examination, the province spent Rp 1.3 billion to print papers and answer sheets.
During the first day of the exams, a number of schools received the wrong papers and experienced errors in disbursement of test papers for the Indonesian language subject.
In the province's Karangasem regency, students received papers for English instead of Indonesian.
"Some schools in Karangasem received packages of papers that read *Bahasa Indonesia' on its cover, but it was papers for English," Governor I Made Mangku Pastika said after observing the exam at SMKN 3 vocational school in Denpasar on Monday.
Similar errors occurred in several schools in Buleleng regency, including in SMAN 4 high school Singaraja. The exam, scheduled for 8 a.m., was delayed for 30 minutes.
Head of Buleleng education agency Gde Suyasa said he had ensured the English papers would not be leaked, although the papers had been disclosed by mistake.
"We arranged for officers from the police and the schools to supervise the paper distribution."
Meanwhile, three students in Denpasar failed to participate in the exams due to dengue fever.
